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MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota: Voters elected a black Democrat as the first Muslim in Congress after an election campaign in which he advocated a quick US withdrawal from Iraq and made little mention of his faith.

Keith Ellison, a lawyer and state representative, defeated two rivals to succeed the retiring Democrat Martin Sabo in a seat that has been held by Democrats since 1963.

Mr Ellison, 43, who converted to Islam as a 19-year-old college student in his native Detroit, won with the help of Muslims among a coalition of liberal, anti-war voters.

He advocates an immediate US withdrawal from Iraq and holds liberal views. He did not often speak of his faith during the campaign, but awareness of his candidacy drew interest from Muslims well beyond the Minneapolis-centred district.

A significant number of Somali immigrants in Minneapolis cast their first votes for him in the crowded September primary. Mr Ellison was also the surprise choice of party regulars.

While Muslim-Americans make up less than 3 per cent of the population, and have largely been a non-factor in terms of political power, get-out-the-vote efforts in several Muslim areas suggest they are an emerging force.

About 2 million Muslims are registered voters, and their ranks increased by tens of thousands in the weeks before the the congressional elections, Muslim groups said.

Since the 2001 attacks on the US by militant Islamists, Muslim Americans have become sensitised to what many feel is an erosion of their civil rights.

US foreign policy that targets Muslim countries also has generated a sense of urgency, experts said.

"[Americans] treat us differently after September 11. My own father was attacked," said an Ellison supporter, Khadra Darsame, who came to the US from Somalia in 1995. "Ellison said everybody matters equally and he told us what he would do … He will do the right thing."

Born a Catholic in Detroit, Mr Ellison said his values were shaped by both faiths, along with his grandfather's civil rights work in the South.

Opponents focused on Mr Ellison's sloppy handling of his taxes and a slew of unpaid parking tickets, as well as his former affiliation with the Nation of Islam, an American Islamic group whose leader, Louis Farrakhan, has been criticised for anti-Semitism.

Mr Ellison subsequently said he worked with the Nation of Islam largely to promote the 1995 Million Man March, a protest by African-American men in Washington.

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Background questioned &#x2026; Keith Ellison hugs a supporter as he celebrates his victory in Minnesota.

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